I had an interesting conversation with a colleague the other day. In between seeing patients, he sat down next to me and said "so, where's home?". That's a question I used to struggle with. I spent a lot of time thinking about things like that in high school, which I attributed to me being particularly insightful and self-aware. I realise now that I was just trying to figure out my identity.
This particular conversation was different because the colleague who asked me the question was in a similar position to mine. He too was a "citizen of the world", belonging to several countries, or none of them. Although there are a lot of people in my situation (that is, being born in some part of Asia and then moving over to Australia), the weird thing was my family's timing. Most of my friends therefore are either born in Australia (therefore mainly identify as being Australian Born Chinese), or moved over to Australia in late high school/university, therefore identifying as Asian and living in Australia. What about those of us who are stuck in between??
Also, remember that saying "give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man"? So am I a product of my early upbringing? There's a subtle difference between the questions "where are you from?" and "where is home for you?". And I think my answers would be different.
Finally and most importantly, knowing that we belong to the kingdom of God makes such matters less relevant (Luke 18:16).
I don't really worry too much about figuring out where I belong anymore :)
This particular conversation was different because the colleague who asked me the question was in a similar position to mine. He too was a "citizen of the world", belonging to several countries, or none of them. Although there are a lot of people in my situation (that is, being born in some part of Asia and then moving over to Australia), the weird thing was my family's timing. Most of my friends therefore are either born in Australia (therefore mainly identify as being Australian Born Chinese), or moved over to Australia in late high school/university, therefore identifying as Asian and living in Australia. What about those of us who are stuck in between??
Also, remember that saying "give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man"? So am I a product of my early upbringing? There's a subtle difference between the questions "where are you from?" and "where is home for you?". And I think my answers would be different.
Finally and most importantly, knowing that we belong to the kingdom of God makes such matters less relevant (Luke 18:16).
I don't really worry too much about figuring out where I belong anymore :)
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